What smart steps should business leaders be taking to deal with
Act II of the new economy? Maybe the smartest thing to do is to
take stock of Act I: What lessons did we learn in the first five
years of the new economy? How can those lessons guide us in the
next five years?

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
Founder and CEO
Bloomberg LP
New York, New York

I've learned that change is always evolutionary and is virtually
never revolutionary. There are no simple solutions to complex
problems. The fashion of the times changes day in and day out:
Everyone has invented the perpetual-motion machine, everyone has a
get-rich-quick scheme, and everyone says that they're going to
revolutionize the world with a little piece of software. The press
writes about such things because they're interesting. And the
public would like to believe that you can get something for nothing
- but that's just not the case.

Product matters. Marketing is useful, but you must have the best
product out there. And that product is not technology; it's not
data; it's not anything physical - it's service. Our customers only
care about what we have that can help them. Our focus has been to
explain how we can improve their lives - make them more efficient,
more pleasurable - as opposed to selling what we produce.

I don't think there is a new economy. I think there are new tools
for the economy. The basics of commerce remain: You've got to have
something that people need, something that they can't get
elsewhere. And the more they can't get it elsewhere, the more they
need it. Adam Smith said it all: With a small supply and a big
demand, you have a business. Everything else we do is along that
continuum.